


Wooden toys

by Approachingoverdrive123



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Dark, Sad, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28733895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Approachingoverdrive123/pseuds/Approachingoverdrive123
Summary: Ellie ran as fast as she could, her lungs burning as she sprinted across the frozen landscape.The town was much quieter than usual, even at night you could always hear the sounds of work, usually, that would be calming. right now, after what she found at the armoury? It was bone-chilling.Or I wasn’t sad enough about Joel’s death and had to torture myself more out of pure alcohol fueled masochism
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us), Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us), Ellie & Maria (The Last of Us), Ellie/Joel (The Last of Us), Joel & Sarah (The Last of Us), Joel & Tommy (The Last of Us)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 34





	Wooden toys

Ellie ran as fast as she could, her lungs burning as she sprinted across the frozen landscape. The town was much quieter than usual, even at night you could always hear the sounds of work, usually, that would be calming. right now, after what she found at the armoury? It was bone-chilling. 

It all started when that girl and her friends came through, Ellie had spent the night nestled in Dinas arms, getting stoned out of her mind and exhausted from the events that transpired after. She was woken early in the morning, a panicked knocking at the door. When she finally got up and dressed enough to look presentable she opened that barrier and stepped into a nightmare.Maria stood in the freezing snow, her eyes wet and red. She took a deep shaky breath looking Ellie deep in the eyes as she muttered those earthshattering words. ‘It's Joel” she said, ‘he's been hurt, it's looking pretty bad”. 

Ellie rushed to the clinic in town and what she saw when she opened that door was worse than she could've ever happened. Joel was laying on a surgical table, stuck full of tubes and wires. He had an oxygen mask on his face but that didn't cover the massive gash in the side of his head. His face was bruised and battered, a broken nose and missing teeth only making the horrific sight worse. At first, she wasn't sure it was him, the doctors had shaved his head and face but then her eyes panned down to his bruised and broken body and she saw the watch still on his wrist, the face broken and the arms having long given up trying to move. In a sick and twisted way, it reflected the very arm it was stuck to.

It was 3 months before Joel woke up, every day Ellie visited him. Sometimes she would read, sometimes she would play her guitar, solemnly plucking those worn strings. She waited every night she could for hours for the slightest movement and when it finally came, a twitch of a finger, it only solidified her routine. slowly Joel woke up for longer and longer and Ellie was there by his side as much as she could be. When he could finally get the strength to move it was slow and feeble, months of laying there causing atrophy in his muscles. Even then he never fully recovered.After a while, Joel was walking around again. With the help of a cane, he would make his way around Jackson, helping out where ever he could. He delved even deeper into his carpentry, making chairs and other things for people around the town. He even made small toys for the children, sometimes little wooden horses or a little race car. The joy on the kids faces as he handed them these marvellous wonders was more than enough to keep him happy. Or so Ellie thought. He couldn’t fight anymore but he still went to Jackson’s range and shot his revolver from time to time, always eager to keep his skills sharp in case he ever needed to help.

And then another fight happened, they were sitting in his new home, moving had been a necessity after they found that Joel couldn’t climb the stairs in his old abode. It started simple, Joel talking about how he wanted to get back out and start doing runs again and it devolved into a screaming match between him and Ellie, ending with her screaming at him “YOU'RE USELESS OUT THERE NOW JOEL, LOOK AT YOU, YOU CAN'T EVEN CLIMB THE FUCKING STAIRS”. 

That day after Ellie cut down Joel like that he went to the range and did his usual thing, leaving his brass in the right box to be collected for reloading and putting his gun case back in its locker. He walked back home and everything was as it should be.  
That was until Ellie went to the armoury to pick up his revolver for a run. She often used the small gun nowadays, it packing a bigger punch than her beretta, but this time when she went to grab it, it was gone, only an empty case and a box of ammo.Usually, Ellie would just leave without it but with reports of higher than usual clicker activity, she decided it would be better to track it down. 

She was halfway to Joel’s new home when the shot rang off. it was like thunder and her blood ran cold. Ellie ran as fast as she could, her lungs burning as she sprinted across the frozen landscape. The town was much quieter than usual, even at night you could always hear the sounds of work, usually that would be calming. right now, after what she found at the armoury? It was bone chilling. 

By the time she got to the small apartment she was exhausted, bent over leaning on her knees, but she didn’t have the time to catch her breath. The first thing she heard when she opened that door was the dripping. Like a leaky faucet dripping onto the floor. Drip, drip, drip. She stepped through into the living room and for a second everything was normal. She scanned the room and everything was where it should be, clean and tidy. She called out for joel but there was no answer, so she kept going. 

Then her earth shattered. The door to his workshop was ajar just enough for the evening light to shine through, dust flowing through the air like little snowflakes. But when she opened that door the sight she saw was burned into her mind for the rest of her life. It looked almost normal the way he was sitting there, reclined in that chair he spent hours making just right. He used to bring it out onto the porch and carve his toys, waving at the families walking by as he made his latest delight. In his hand he held his watch broken and battered from years of fighting to hell and back.In his lap lay a couple of polaroids, one of him and Sarah, her holding up her trophy in glee, and one of the day he taught Ellie to swim. But on the floor, laying under his other hand lay that small revolver, beaten and battered from years of use. His head was leant forward but as Ellie got closer she saw what was making that dripping noise. The blood dropped down that old oil skin jacket like droplets of rain on a blade of grass, pouring forth from the mouth that once sung beautiful songs telling tales of love and joy. 

The townsfolk weren’t far behind her, they found her clutching him, pleading for him to come back. In the end timmy had to come and tear her away to him and Maria’s home where he held her tight, Dina coming as soon as she could to comfort her, but no one could console Ellie as she sobbed in that empty guest room.

They found his note, it was short, painfully so. It told of how he felt useless, that he couldn’t do anything anymore. The very last read “I found something to fight for, but I’m so fucking tired of fighting”

  
  
  



End file.
